Archive for the ‘Checking In’ Category

(Photo: FatMandy / Flickr)

Dear TICKET Readers:

Happy New Year and thanks very much for taking the time to respond to our recent survey, which revealed some interesting traits when it comes to you and your travel habits.

Thanks also for all the unsolicited kudos that came through in your comments… Awww shucks…. we were surprised and heartened by all the warm fuzzies. Thank you.

When we decided to create this survey, we thought we’d be lucky to get 100 responses… but a whopping 620 of you took the time to participate, which means we spent hours happily pouring through and tabulating all the responses.

Here’s a round up of the results:

How long have you been reading The TICKET?

Whoa! Check out the number of loyal readers who’ve stuck with us over the eons. Many of you harkened back to the days in the 90’s when subscribers happily paid $39 a year for a monthly newsletter sent via US Mail!

• 48% have been reading for one to five years (we appreciate the biz!)
• 40% have stuck with us for more than five years! (Gee tanks, folks!)
• 12% discovered The TICKET less than one year ago (welcome, newbies!)

Who decides which travel suppliers you use?

TICKET readers are clearly an independent group—83% said that they decide for themselves which suppliers to use while just 10% said that their boss or corporate travel department told them what to do. Many also said that their buying decisions are frequently influenced by ads and editorial in The TICKET.

How much do you fly?

The big surprise here was that 17% of you take more than four round trips per month—or 40 trips per year. That’s a lot of time on a plane! The average TICKET reader takes around two trips per month, or 24 in a year.

Where do you sleep?

Two thirds of TICKET readers spend the night at hotels between one and six nights per month. But get this, nearly 20% spend more than 10 nights per month in hotels—that’s 120 nights per year!

What type of metallic status do you have?

Nearly everyone said that they hold medallion status on Delta– no surprise there!

• 23% are platinum
• 21% are gold
• 17% are long suffering silvers
• 15% are diamonds (and get all the upgrades!)

Some of our long time readers are now retired, which means that 23% no longer have any status at all—or they spread their biz around among several carriers.

Where do you cheat on The TICKET?

TICKET readers are a well-read bunch, but when they don’t get what they want from us, they most often turn to: Joe Brancatelli, Chris Elliott, The Points Guy, FlyerTalk, Milepoint, USA Today, AJC and Clark Howard.

Do you fly much over water?

Two-thirds of TICKET readers jet off to international destinations one to three times per year. 11% go overseas four to six times per year and 5% go beyond borders seven or more times per year. 26% stick closer to home with no international hops.

No surprise here: TICKET readers are big spenders!

• 33% shell out between $20,000 and $50,000 per year on travel
• 14% spend between $50,000 and $100,000 per year
• 6% spend more than $100K per year

Another interesting stat: TICKET readers collectively spent nearly $60,000 year last year on Delta tickets purchased via links from the site. THANK YOU!

TICKET readers’ households are very comfortable financially.

• 18% earn between $100,000 and $150,000 per year
• 17% earn more than $250,000 per year
• 14% earn from $150,000 to $200,000 per year
• 9% earn between $200,000 and $250,000 per year

You all are also very discreet—26% chose not to disclose their annual household income—which leads us to believe that there are many more in the top income brackets.

How old are you?

We knew that many of our readers were “mature” but we were surprised how few of them are very young—only 1% are less than 30 years old.

• 32% are from 30-50
• 31% are from 51-60
• 27% range from 61-70
• 5% are older than 70

Any suggestions on how we can pull in some of those young bucks?

Are you a media socialite?

When it comes to social media, TICKET readers are mixed—about 40% of you are very active, checking in on Facebook, Twitter or Linked In once or more per day, and another 40% check in a few times per month. But a surprisingly large contingent—23%– say that they never check in on social media sites. (If you are not following us on Twitter or Facebook, COME ON and join the fun. By following us, you are likely to get more money saving travel news faster…)

Do you have any more feedback, comments or suggestions for about The TICKET? Any ideas on potential advertisers or other sources of funding? Please leave your comments below, or email Chris!

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HOTWIRE: Great hotel deals and $13.95 per day rental cars with low Hotwire Hot-Rates!

After a couple years in the doldrums, business travelers are anticipating an increase in corporate travel for 2011 according to a new survey from Deloitte.

Some key findings:

>MORE TRIPS: By the end of 2011, 80 percent of business travelers surveyed predict they will take more or the same number of business trips than they did in 2010.

>MORE SPENDING: 79 percent said that they will also spend more or the same amount on business travel in 2011.

>CUTTING BACK: Nearly all respondents said that they monitored business travel expenses more closely this past year by: shortening trips, reducing spending on food/restaurants, or choosing less expensive hotels.

>TIGHTER REINS: 59 percent said that their companies are more strictly enforcing travel guidelines such as getting pre-trip approvals and setting dollar spending limits for hotels.

>KEY AMENITIES: Four out of five respondents felt that high-speed Internet (79 percent) and free parking (77 percent) were the most important amenities to them when staying at a hotel for business.

What about you? Have you sensed a loosening of the purse strings at your company? Do you think you’ll be traveling and spending more next year? Please leave your comments below.

* The September survey polled a nationally representative sample of 1,001 business travelers and has a margin of error of +/- three percentage points.

Don’t Forget! BOOK ALL YOUR ONLINE TRAVEL VIA LINKS FROM THE TICKET! It helps us help you!

Just click here:

airtran.com | delta.com | Hotwire

BREAKING 5 pm EDT: President Obama says that explosives were found in air cargo bound for the U.S. If you are traveling this weekend or into next week expect heightened attention around security screening– and the possibility of longer security lines. Give yourself a wider time cushion when it comes to leaving for the airport!

Hey Folks:

As you know, we crank out an email alert to remind you to check in with The TICKET once or twice a month.

But did you know that we are constantly updating the blog throughout the month? We are also posting important news and tips via our Facebook and Twitter pages nearly every day. (For example, we’ve been busy tweeting new details about Southwest+AirTran as they emerge…)

Eventually, all those blurbs end up in The TICKET each month.

But if you’d like to get your travel news when it happens, or just check in on what we are reading or thinking when it comes to the big wide world of travel, please sign up, like, follow or friend us on Facebook and Twitter!

Ready? Just click here:

The TICKET Twitter page

The TICKET Facebook page

Don’t Forget! BOOK ALL YOUR ONLINE TRAVEL VIA LINKS FROM THE TICKET! It helps us help you!

Just click here:

airtran.com | delta.com | Hotwire

As you may remember, The TICKET had a new reader promotion several months ago where we asked readers to introduce us to their social networks. With your help, the promotion brought us about 200 new readers! Those who participated were signed up for a sweepstakes drawing.

Do you remember the prize? We gave away FOUR free round trip business class tickets compliments of AirTran.

So without further ado, allow us to introduce the lucky winners! (I asked each to send us a little info about themselves to share with other TICKET readers.)

Clare Millians: Oh my gosh!  I am thrilled to win the contest.  I can’t believe I won.  You have made my day.  I am retired.  I was a flight attendant for Eastern Airlines and then worked as a corporate sales manager for The Ritz-Carlton, Buckhead.  My husband and I decided it was time to travel, so off we went for 7 years.  We still travel, but mostly in the U.S. these days.   We are sneaking over to Vancouver later this month though.  I plan to use the prize to fly to SEA to see my niece and her family.    We love AirTran because of their prices, keeping the fares from ATL competitive and they don’t fly regional jets.  The service is very good and they are flexible with changing dates of travel.  I only wish they went to more places out of ATL.  We have only flown AirTran’s business class once from ATL to SEA and back and it was great.  I enjoy reading your column on a regular basis. (The photo was taken in Alesund, Norway last summer.  It is called, “the prettiest town in Norway”, and I have to agree.)

Ann Larson: This is awesome and I am delighted!! I am an Atlanta-based tour operator and am still jet lagging from dodging volcano ash- having returned yesterday from a fabulous AMA Waterways riverboat cruise/tour with 26 of my “Happy Campers” (travelers) doing the Danube River from Budapest to Prague and everything in between! What a great treat to win this. I will use my AirTran ticket to do a site inspection in the West for something special to put into my 2011 agenda of great tours!! I love and appreciate Air Tran– the best thing that has happened to Atlanta. I travel about 50,000 to 60,000 miles a year- much more in the past. (Photo  is from Mykonos, Greece.)

John Penninger: AWESOME!  You’re serious, right?  Where is Ed McMahon? That is so cool…Thank you so much…I feel like I need to make an acceptance speech. As far as the number of miles I travel per year, it’s definitely down for this Million Miler.  I haven’t flown business class on AirTran before, but I just flew Business Elite on Delta for the first time and it rocked! Thanks again for the AirTran ticket — it will definitely come in handy– working in the nonprofit world has its rewards, but big money certainly isn’t one of them.  :)

Like what I’m doing here? Then follow me on Facebook!

Don’t Forget! BOOK ALL YOUR ONLINE TRAVEL VIA LINKS FROM THE TICKET!

airtran.com | delta.com | Hotwire

I made the following video for my Best Western blog at www.youmustbetrippin.com and it’s sorta gone viral (nearly 1000 views as of Aug 27)

It’s a video report on the opening of the cool new Hotel Avatar in Santa Clara, Calif….in the heart of Silicon Valley. Very clever re-do of the classic motel with all the modern amenities you’d expect, like free and fast wifi, nice pool, gym with elliptical trainers, etc.

Rates start in the very reasonable range of about $130 per night and it’s a nice colorful change compared to a lot of the beige box hotels in the area.

Check out the two min video and see for yourself:

Between our business trips, press trips and personal travel, we stay at a LOT of hotels. We’d like to share our experiences with TICKET readers here in this new feature, CHECKING IN WITH THE TICKET.

HOTEL PALOMAR-ATLANTA. We’ll start out with a review on familiar turf: Atlanta. A few months ago, the new Hotel Palomar in Midtown Atlanta hosted us for one night. By now you may have seen the 21-story, 304 room Hotel Palomar from the downtown connector. It’s a brand new-from-the-ground-up hotel at 12th and West Peachtree.

We stayed there on a Saturday night in late May. Having had many positive experiences at other Kimpton Group hotels scattered around the country, we had high expectations, and we are pleased to report those expectations were met this time around.

For a hotel that had only been open a few short months, we did not detect the slightest bit of just-opened jitters. All the staff, from the bellhops who greeted us on the street, the front desk staff, housekeepers…everyone was completely on their game. We are used to giving a wide berth to the staff at brand new hotels as they work through opening kinks, but that was definitely not necessary at the Palomar.

We really liked the modern, yet comfortable design of our room. Lots of ambers, browns, grays and tans in both wood and stone with a splash of red and orange here and there. Nice desk with an Aeron-like chair. Wi-fi is free for members of Kimpton’s In-Touch loyalty program. Flat screen TV. A nice bright and modern bathroom with a big tub-less shower.

Overall, it had the mod feel of a W Hotel without the disco-y dark corridors throbbing to a deep beat which always strain us when traveling on business.  We had an outstanding meal in the hotel restaurant called Pacci, which was reviewed earlier this year in THE TASTE OF THE TICKET. Then we spend several hours on the rooftop deck, complete with its own screened in porch.

The only downside was the enforced valet parking @$30 per night (plus tip). There’s no self-park option, which is too bad considering that the hotel parking lot is located right next to the hotel…and about 100 feet from the valet stand. Next time we’ll ditch the car and take MARTA!

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